For inspiration for a theme for this latest member’s only competition I just had a quick look around my room and spotted a book title The Timekeeper.

Please write a poem with this title please. The deadline is 28th February.

The winner will receive the Poetry Space pamphlet, Flowers in the Blood by Beverley Ferguson.

Happy writing,

Sue

October 2017

The theme for this next members’ only competition is Light. Interpret any way you wish

Up to two winners will receive a copy of Margaret Eddershaw’s beautiful book, Catching Light and see their poems published here.

Please submit poems by October 31st 2017.

Light Bulbs

Weeks ago, Christmas lights

Were boxed & back in attics,

Shuttered for eleven months at home.

Yet, naked in the earth’s basement rooms,

Incandescent daffodils mark time:

They wait.

There comes an equinoctial moment when

Flayed of skins, dried,

Stripped of frills,

Even these will swell:

Draw water

From chilled wells below.

If then they are plugged

Into the sizzling grid of the sun,

No one sees them smoke & glow—

No one knows except oak roots, rose roots…

Until March light pokes inquisitive fingers into the loam:

Draws up their answers.

Then those dimmed bulbs come on:

Yellow, palest white,

Shades fringed with orange edges,

Rimmed, ruffled in soft layers,

Taffeta trimmed.

Come April, all the lights are on again.

Lizzie Ballagher

March 2017

Walls make an interesting subject for a poem. Walls can contain, divide or protect. Walls can be painted on, used to build houses. Walls can be modern brick or made of stone. walls can be solid entities, or simply barriers in your imagination.
Please send in poems on the theme of ‘walls’ to win a copy of Chester City Walls by Julia D.McGuinness. Julia’s book was a best seller for Poetry Space in 2016.

Poems submitted must be 30 lines or less.

Deadline: 30th April

October 2014

To celebrate the launch of Roger Elkin’s collection Chance Meetings we invited Poetry Space Friends to write a travel poem. There was a wide remit; journeys both personal or exotic. I am delighted to say that the winner is Johanna Boal.